Skip to main content

LIFE AND LIES #1 : Trouble in Paradise


It's 3 AM. I can't find any sleep. I lock my 1BHK flat and call the lift. It's an old-style one. I am worried that the beeping sound it's making would awaken the inmates. Quickly, I shut the doors. The elevator takes me four floors down to the ground floor. Again, I shut the door, quickly.

The night is a bit chilly. The prevailing silence in the compound is only interrupted by some dogs occasionally barking in the distance. My footsteps must have awakened the night guard for he shakes away his awkward sleeping posture. I don't recognize him. Must be new, I think. I move closer and enquire. 

It's his first night in this enclave. He's filling in for someone just for today. Employed by some agency that manages guards from one place to another, he is usually stationed at some resort in Phulbari, Siliguri. There, he works his shift from 8 AM to 4 PM and stays with three other people in a single room. His salary is 6000/- per month. The rent I'm paying for my 1BHK flat is 6000/- per month. 1500/- is cut from his salary for food and uniform. Of what is left some he sends home back in Coochbehar. His family lives in a small village located fifteen kilometres from the main town. His father is a farmer. And he's working here as a night guard with a 6000/- per month salary. Somehow, it must have been an improvement over being a farmer or he wouldn't be here.

I take his leave. As I reach the elevator, I turn to look back. He has gotten up and is walking around in his boots, cap and jacket. A long night awaits him in the open while I resign to the comforts of my flat, to my bed that I had bought recently for 5500/- where I lay awake sifting through the problems of my life.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LIFE AND LIES #77 | The English Teacher

When we are young, the world is full of possibilities. We can do anything, and become anything. We antagonise anyone who even hints at thinking otherwise about us. It's probably why most of us have a story to tell where the villain was a school teacher. Even I do. I don’t remember exactly how I ended up in the Headmaster’s cabin that day. All I remember is that back then I blamed my House Master for it. It wasn’t just me who had bunked the STD XII Pre-Board exams. There were many. But he made a scapegoat out of me. And the moment, I set foot inside the cabin, I received a big slap from the Headmaster. My ears rang. But that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day. The Headmaster instructed him to call my father. Tell him to come or his son would be rusticated. I wasn’t a notorious student. I was good in my studies and had no disciplinary complaints against me. Had this incident not occurred, I would have completed my schooling in a few months with a clean record. My fat...

LIFE AND LIES #98 | Talk To Me

*** The woods are gloomy, dark and scary. You were supposed to keep me company. Even when the roads diverged, You promised me we wouldn't split. Talk to me, man! The mountains spit fire. The rivers run acrid. I walk the barren valley All by myself. Talk to me, man! You and I had concluded long back That life is a joke and Death is the punchline. Then why am I not laughing? Talk to me, man! While I grow old and frail, You'll remain forever young. I say that out of envy Or maybe to content myself. Talk to me, man! I hope you have the answers now To all the questions that befuddle mankind: God, soul, afterlife, rebirth, heaven and hell. You can go on a rant about them if you want, But just once come and talk to me, man! ***

LIFE AND LIES #100 | The Blurred Lines

Nitin was utterly shocked when he woke up on Saturday morning with a hangover and without any recollection of what had transpired the previous night. He had been drunk before. He had lost all of his senses before. But everything always came back to him the next morning. However, that day, it didn't; complete blackout. There must have been something bizarre in that drink. Over the course of the week, though, he started remembering flashes of it and began looking for an opportunity to talk to Sandhya, sober and alone. The weather had taken a sharp turn today. A sweltering sunny day gave way to a cloudy evening with thrashing winds. As everyone raced to the office window to watch the scene unfolding outside, Nitin saw Sandhya signalling to him by pressing two fingers to her lips. He couldn’t help but smile. She knew he loved to smoke in this weather. After all, she was his smoking partner in the office. Together, they went downstairs, but as soon as they stepped out of the building, t...